Making generalizations about the
visual culture of any group
of people is a crude endeavor, especially with a culture as diverse as Spain's. With this thought in mind,
know that this survey, as any must be, is tremendously limited
in its breadth and depth.

In the center-foreground
is the infanta (princess) attended by her meninas (maids of honor) — companions including
two young ladies, a dwarf, a child, a dog, a nun, and a tutor.

This little party is visiting the studio
where Velázquez stands before his canvas. We see the back of it, perched upon
an easel. The painter and
the most of the others look toward the king and queen as they
pose for the painting in progress.

The king and queen would not actually be
visible in this picture if their reflected
image could not be seen in a mirror
placed on the opposite wall. Altogether this is a view, which
could only be seen by the king and queen themselves, as they pose for their
portrait. The point of view
of every person who gazes
upon this painting is that of the king and queen of Spain. A
very privileged vantage indeed!

Further
increasing the sense that we are present at a specific moment
is our glimpse of a man in the distant doorway, pausing as he
descends or ascends — either entering or exiting the chamber.
See Baroque,
detail, genre, and self-portrait.

Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881-1973), Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, 1907, oil on canvas,
8' x 7'8" (243.9 x 233.7 cm), in the Museum of Modern Art,
New York. This is considered by many the first cubist painting.
It was influenced by the paintings by Paul Cézanne and
by the fauvists,
as well as by Africansculptures.
The subjects of this picture are actually not women of the city
of Avignon, but prostitutes of a street named Avignon. See Cubism.